1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of driving light sources, a device for driving light sources and a display device having the device for driving the light sources. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of driving light sources used for a flat panel display device, a device for driving light sources and a display device having the device for driving the light sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices, such as flat panel display devices, have been developed with strong mechanical strength, low driving voltage, low power consumption, small size, thin thickness and light weight. A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is a type of flat panel display device that has these various characteristics. Also, the LCD device has high display quality substantially similar to a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device. In the recent past, the LCD device has been widely used in various fields.
Some backlight assemblies utilized in LCD devices include a direct illumination type backlight assembly or an edge illumination type backlight assembly. The direct illumination type backlight assembly includes a plurality of light sources under a display panel. The edge illumination type backlight assembly has a light source adjacent to a side surface of a light guide plate to supply the display with light. The light source may include a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL). The CCFLs of the direct illumination type backlight assembly may be grouped into a plurality of groups, and the groups may be independently operated. The CCFLs receive substantially the same amount of power.
However, when luminance of the display panel of the display device having the direct illumination type backlight assembly is tested, luminances of an upper portion, a lower portion, a central portion, a left portion and a right portion are different from each other. Thus, display quality of the display panel is deteriorated.
Although the equal amount of power is applied to the CCFLs, non-uniformity of the backlight assembly may be caused by non-uniformity of the backlight assembly or structural irregularity of elements of the backlight assembly. However, adjusting luminances at various portions of the backlight assembly to compensate the non-uniformity is not easy, and the causes of the non-uniformity are not simple to identify.